Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 621 | Why Banning Guns Won’t Fix It

Episode Date: May 31, 2022

Today we're going over the atrocious events that took place in Uvalde, Texas, last week. We discuss what happened and how we as Christians should view these horrific situations. We also talk about the political response coming from the Left, which is, unsurprisingly, calls for more gun control. This completely misses the most important part of the issue, which we explain is cultural problems like fatherlessness and moral decay. --- Timecodes: (0:00) Allie's back & she missed you all! (12:00) The horrific tragedy in Uvalde, TX (16:00) God is a vengeful God! (22:52) Praying IS doing something! (26:45) Let's examine the warning signs the shooter made public (30:00) Let's look at law enforcement's response to the shooting (51:45)) How do we keep guns out of the hands of bad guys, without inhibiting the rights of gun ownership & self-defense of the good guys? (54:00) Banning AR-15s is not a serious solution (59:55) Fatherlessness crisis --- Today's Sponsors: Chamonix by Genucel — sign up for their best in class rewards program at checkout for an extra 10% off your order & you'll also receive a complimentary gift set! Go to Genucel.com/ALLIE for 60% off! Good Ranchers — right now, get 2 FREE 18-ounce prime center-cut ribeyes when you use promo code 'ALLIE' for your purchase at GoodRanchers.com/ALLIE. Annie's Kit Clubs — get your first month subscription box 75% off at AnniesKitClubs.com/ALLIE! StartMail keeps your email private - every email can be encrypted! Go to StartMail.com/ALLIE for 50% off your first year! --- Show Links: Tickets for the Turning Point USA Young Women's Leadership Summit => https://bit.ly/3N4XWmB Samuel Sey's 'Slow to Write:': "Absentee Fathers, Not Guns, Are the Problem" https://bit.ly/3zbc3CS --- Buy Allie's book, You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love: https://alliebethstuckey.com/book Relatable merchandise- use promo code 'ALLIE10' for a discount: https://shop.blazemedia.com/collections/allie-stuckey

Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort.

We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. Hey, guys, welcome to relatable. Happy Tuesday. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers. Go to Good Ranchers.com slash Allie for a discount.

That's good ranchers.com slash alley. All right, guys. I really missed you last week. I feel like I have been gone forever. Today we are going to talk about the shooting. I won't rehash all of the details that you guys probably have heard a few times now since the shooting in Evalde, Texas happened last week. But I am going to try to give my perspective on it, this epidemic of a lack of masculinity and an epidemic of meaninglessness that I think our society is suffering from. And then, yeah, I will give my.

my perspective on guns and gun laws and the regulations, also the failures and the factors that played into all of this. And so that's what we're going to talk about today. And then, of course, I'm going to round it out with the theological, the Christian perspective on all of this. But before we get into the more serious stuff, I do just kind of want to start it by saying how thankful I am for this podcast. And for you guys last week, it was supposed to be kind of a break from talking about the news that didn't end up really happening. I wasn't on vacation. I was still home.

So it was just kind of normal day to day, minus the fact that I wasn't preparing for the podcast and coming in. So I did kind of still get a break. But with everything going on, I felt an obligation to bring you as much information and perspective as I could about the shooting and some of the other things going on. And I actually found that I had a lot more anxiety than I typically do in a normal week when I'm doing the podcast. And I was thinking, why is that? Is it just because of the

heaviness, the gravity of what we're talking about? Or is it because I use this podcast as a way to externally process everything that's going on? So without the ability to talk to you guys about news stories and the issues of the week, I was kind of having to hold it all inside. Like I couldn't spill everything on Instagram, nor did I want to. And so I just had it, you know, I was like a ball of, of just anxiety and worry inside me. And I was really, it was good practice, though, because I was trying to release that without having the podcast, you know, through prayer and through, you know, my thought processes and all of that.

But this podcast serves so many, as so many different things for me. one of them is being able to get out all of the thoughts in my head about everything that's going on. It's actually very cathartic. Also, if you notice the change in my voice, I am a little bit congested, but I'm fine. It's just a little lingering summer cold that I've got, but in case you were worried about that. So I'm thankful for this podcast for a variety of reasons. I'm thankful for you guys. I truly feel like we are a family and have built a community. And I went through some, you know, I don't know if you would call it drama, but just some like back and forth conflict last week on social media. And I won't rehash it right now.

And if you follow, you know what I'm talking about. And you guys were just really encouraging to me. And it can be really, it can be really kind of demoralizing and discouraging when it, when not only are you talking about just some of the most tragic and depraved and heartbreaking. things in talking about the stories that we discuss, but also when there are disagreements among Christians, when you feel like you're at odds with Christians that you respect when it comes to political issues, that's what was happening last week. That can just be really hard. It can be really demoralizing.

And you guys really buoyed me and gave me a lot of encouragement and shared the arrows, if you will. And I just appreciate that so much. So thank you guys for being who you are. I really did miss you. In a couple weeks, we'll be taking another break. I think that we will probably pre-record some episodes for that, but just taking another summer break.

So just be ready for that. Oh, another thing this weekend is Young Women's Leadership Summit, Turning Point USA. I'll be speaking on Friday. If you're going to be there, I would love to meet you. I think you can still sign up and get your tickets and make plans to go. You don't have to be technically a young woman. There's a broad spectrum there. but if you can go, there's going to be a lot of awesome speakers.

This is probably my favorite event that I do every year just because it's amazing to be in the room with so many like-minded and energetic women. So make sure you sign up for that if you haven't already and make sure to say hi if you are there on Friday. All right. One more thing that I wanted to say to just kind of start us off on a positive note before we get down into the nitty gritty and the mud of what happened last week. I shared this on Instagram and it was something I thought about.

It's not a revelation because obviously I knew this, but it was something I thought about last week having more downtime and more time to just do the mundane things of life, you know, run errands, go to the park, all of that. And there were so many pleasant interactions that I had with strangers, which is normal. when you go to the grocery store, when you go to the park, when you go to a restaurant, you talk to people that you don't know, you don't know their background, you don't know their political leanings, you don't know what their reaction on social media was to the latest news stories. And yet you have this very pleasant conversation and you like the person. And it made me think about how different reality is from social media. On social media, you don't have the foundation of friendship or just liking the other person before you learn the thing about them that makes you really angry.

You first learn about their political opinions, the thing about them that you don't like, and you don't have any kind of friendship foundation. You don't have any reason to give them the benefit of the doubt because you don't even know if you like the person. So you automatically, because of the opinion that you heard them articulate, think the worst thing about them. And I think that we have to consider. that that person that we think that we hate because they have that terrible opinion, which

truly might be terrible, and if we met them in real life, if we saw them playing with their toddler at the park and you struck up a conversation and you talked about the things that you have in common, that you would probably really like that person. That person probably isn't terrible. They're probably not mean-spirited. They probably don't lack empathy and compassion. They could be totally wrong on that particular thing, but you probably wouldn't hate them. Like I sometimes think, you know, if I didn't know anything about AOC's politics and we just saw each other and I don't know, we sat by each other on a plane, we would probably have a lot in common and maybe, I don't know, this might be too far, but maybe we would become friends or something like that. I think about that often and maybe, and I'm totally speaking to myself too, we should have that consideration before we respond to someone or talk about someone on social media that they are a human, being that if we met them in person as a stranger, we would probably like them. And we have to remember that friendship in the real world gives us a foundation that makes it easier to disagree

in a way that still ends in reconciliation in love because you had everything leading up to that disagreement where you shared a lot of things in common and you know that person is not terrible. And so we should consider that, I think, before we judge too quickly, on social media before we try to malign someone's motives or character, they probably are a pretty good person. They just happen to really disagree with you. And I am preaching to the choir because I certainly don't always consider that when I see someone's bad opinions on social media and response. So just a lesson, a lesson from Allie's break last week that I think we all, me included, need to apply. And before I get into this, I am going to take a pause and tell you about our first

sponsor. But this does, this does loop into what we're talking about today because I do think America is uniquely divided in the world. I think we're uniquely partisan. I think we're uniquely vitriolic. I think that we are uniquely emotional. We are uniquely online. And I think that causes a lot of the violence and a lot of the vitriol and just a lot of the hatred and resentment and firiness of the debates and the discussions that we have that then does kind of lay the groundwork for some of the tragedies that we have seen recently, including the tragedy that we saw last week. Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Alley, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country

aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and test it against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where

we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. Okay, so for those of you who you maybe didn't tune into the news last week. You just tuned in to relatable for the news. I do want to make sure that I give you guys some context and some details about what went on without rehashing it too much and in too much detail for those of you who were paying intention last week. And you have already heard everything that happened, summarized and analyzed quite a few times. So in summary, an 18-year-old killed 21 people last week in Yuvalde, Texas, 19 children, nine and 10-year-olds and two teachers. And one of the most tragic stories that I heard come out of all of this is that the husband

of one of the two teachers who was murdered, he suffered from a fatal heart attack the next day after she died and they leave behind four children. Can you imagine the trauma that those kids are going through, the heartache, the heartbreak, I pray to God that they have community. I pray to God that Christians would surround them and would take care of. of them and would meet their needs, there is a go-fund me for those children. I hope that those funds take care of all the needs that they have, but gosh, their needs go so far beyond financial. They're going to need emotional support. They are going to need probably years of counseling.

They are going to need the church to show up for them. They are going to need people to stand in as their parents, as their protectors, as their providers. I am so saddened for those children. I'm saddened for all of these families. I mean, can you imagine the parents, who are waking up today, hoping, hoping that they can just pinch themselves, that someone will just shake them and they'll wake up from this nightmare who haven't even probably been able to process the fact that their nine and 10-year-old babies are about to be buried. These parents are burying their kids this week. They will never talk to them again. They'll never hug them again. They'll never say goodnight to them again. I mean, it's hard for me to even keep it together

thinking about that. I am so saddened for what this community is. is going through for what these families are going through, what these parents are experiencing right now, unless you've gone through it, I haven't. I pray that I never do. I pray that you never do. I don't think that we can imagine the pain of the loss of a child. From what I've heard, it is the most painful experience that a person can ever go through. I mean, of course, losing your spouse, losing your parent, losing your friend is awful, but there is nothing. And I can just imagine it as a mom, even though I don't, I can't. I can't. empathize with it because I've never been there. I the pain of losing a child that child it's like

your heart walking around outside your body. I mean, you would do anything for them, anything. I mean, as soon as you become pregnant and then especially on another level it seems as soon as they lay that child on your chest or as soon as you see your adopted child for the first time, like you just know something just hits you, this wave of love, and you realize that you would die a thousand deaths for that child just to ensure that they would be okay. So the depth of the grief and the pain that these parents, these families are feeling, oh my goodness. Again, we need to pray for them. We need to pray that the God of all peace would surround them, would fill their hearts, would comfort them, would be with them, that the community would come together, that somehow

God would be glorified out of this, and that might sound strange to say, but God does use for good what Satan means for evil. He can be glorified in the midst of evil and tragedy. The gospel can go out and be heard and believed. Communities can be rebuilt, although this community, these families, these parents will never be the same. But there can be God glorifying things that come out of this because that is who God is. He brings beauty from the ashes. He redeems that which seems irredeemable, that which seems broken. And so I pray that that's what God would do here. I do pray that the gospel would go out.

That's, of course, the last thing that Satan wants. He wants evil to have the last word. He wants evil to rule. He wants wickedness to have the last say, both in this situation and eternally. But we already know, because we can read the end of the Bible, that that's not going to be the case, that wickedness will not have have the last day, that evil will not rule forevermore. Psalm 37 tells us that the wicked one day will be no more.

He will fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. And God and his righteousness will rule in perfect peace, and he will do away with evil and wickedness forever. There will be no mass murders. There will be no sickness. There will be no more sadness. There will be no more injustice. We know that Satan will not have the last word in eternity.

So when people ask, how can a good sovereign God allow these parents to go through this, allow these children to suffer in this way? If he is all good and he is all powerful, he's all knowing, he's all seeing, he's everywhere at once, he could have prevented this and that means he chose not to. I understand that and I think that's a good question. I think that's an understandable feeling to have that kind of doubt and that wrestling in to just kind of let yourself sit in that tension and the discomfort. I would say don't fall back on this idea that, oh, it didn't, you know, God isn't sovereign over

this kind of stuff. He couldn't have stopped it if he wanted to. No, God is all powerful. He is all seeing. He is all knowing. And yet evil happens. Sin entered the world. And what I comfort myself with is that God is not sitting on his proverbial hands. God is not apathetic. God is not just waiting around wondering what's going to happen, that he is ultimately sovereign and that he is and will do something about all evil and wickedness. He will destroy it forever. There is a day coming when justice and righteousness and peace will rule. And so when you're wondering, why isn't God doing something? God's eternal plan of redemption is always going off without a hitch in all things, work together eternally, ultimately, for the good of those who love God and are called according to his

purpose, Romans 828. So God will be a vengeful God. He will avenge all bloodshed of innocent people. He will avenge all evil. He will avenge all the works of the devil and all the works of evildoers. He is doing something. He will do something. And that doesn't mean that we can make sense of all evil and all tragedy. It doesn't mean that it's okay. He certainly doesn't approve of it. He hates sin. He hates transgression. He hates iniquity. He hates the shedding of innocent blood. That's something we see repeatedly throughout Scripture. But we have to trust that God's plan of redemption, that God's goodness, that God's faithfulness is still just as steady as ever. And that he is and will do something about the evil that we experience on earth, that the blood of these innocent children

and these two teachers who died will be avenged. It one day will be avenged. It one day will be avenged in eternity, but also in this life, that's part of why we believe in a justice system. That's part of why we believe in punishment for crime. It is not only to deter crime. It's not only just for punitive measures. It is because we are recognizing the immorality and the wrongness of violating another person's rights. The chief right is the right to not be murdered, the right to life. And so I just, I wasn't even planning to start with all of that. But as I'm thinking about the pain and the injustice of all of this and the confusion that so many must feel, including these parents, I just wanted to remind us that we have a sovereign and very good God who cares and who sees and who

knows and is close to the brokenhearted and also hates evil. And as I said, we'll be doing something about it. He will be doing something about it. And also, I think, just a reminder, and this is not something to rejoice over, but it also does speak to God's commitment to justice. This shooter, according to Christian theology, unless he repented before he was shot and killed, he is now suffering the consequences of sin in hell, and he will for all of eternity. And so while that doesn't make our hearts break any less for the children and the loss of innocent life, we can rest assured that he is right now experiencing justice. So the shooter shot his grandmother as well. As far as I can read, she's still in critical condition. Again, pray for her. The shooter,

as I already said, he's deceased. He was shot by Border Patrol and we'll get into more of the details of that in just a second. Also, just a note on praying. I saw someone say on Instagram, the person who is followed by a lot of people saying that praying is obviously not working. Thoughts and prayers aren't working. So we need to be doing something else. Well, we have, you have no idea what prayers are accomplishing. You have no idea what crimes are prevented from prayer. You have no idea what lives are being saved because of prayer. You have no idea the miracles that are happening on a daily basis because of prayer. Prayer is not passive. Prayer is not inactivity. Prayer is not apathy. Prayer is not complacency. Prayer is an activity.

Prayer is work. Prayer is doing something. So don't let someone tell you that prayer is just the option that people choose when they don't want to be uncomfortable or when they don't want to do something. just because something bad happens, despite prayer, doesn't mean that prayer is doing nothing. Again, God's work does not necessarily make headlines. It's not trending on Twitter. It's not going to be the center of every conversation that you're having. It's not going to be what the influencers are talking about on Instagram and TikTok. That doesn't mean that he's not working. Again, you have no idea the miracles are accomplished because God decided to work through prayer to accomplish something. You don't know the lives saved. You don't know the good.

that has happened. You don't know the work that has been done because of Christians praying to God, who is all powerful. James 516. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Shame on the person who calls herself a Christian who says that prayer is just kind of some supplementary thing. sure you can do it because it might make you feel a little bit better, but it's, you know, it's not really accomplishing anything, not according to the God who created it, not according to the God to whom we are praying, the prayer of a righteous person, that means everyone who is in Christ, because he has given us his righteous. This is not some moralism, like you've done a list

of good deeds, but the prayer of a righteous person, so the person who is in Christ has great power as it is working. You are doing something by praying. You are doing something by praying. that's not to say we shouldn't do other things too. Obviously, in regard to abortion, we think that we should be praying for an end to abortion, praying for the women who are considering an abortion, praying for the children and the families involved and pray for the people who are performing abortions, all of that. Of course, we believe in praying, but we also believe in going to those clinics and praying with those women and talking with those women. We also believe in legislation. So I understand that people are saying that, okay, you don't just pray, you need to do these other things. Even if you and I, if you are, you know, maybe on the more liberal side of this, even if you and I don't necessarily agree on what that legislation could look like, I do understand when you say, okay, but we also need some, like, we need some other action in addition to praying. Okay, I totally get what you're saying and I'm on board with the logic of what you're saying, but I just want to make clear that people who pray are not simply being passive and not doing anything. You are praying

to a God who, again, you have no idea what he is accomplishing. through the power of prayer. So, as I said, there were 21, 21 victims, most 9-10-year-olds, and then two teachers who were 48 and 44. And my goodness, just the ripple effect of these lives lost, it's just unquantifiable. And it's, again, so hard to imagine what this community and what these families are going to experience for the rest of their lives. So a little bit more about the shooter, and this is kind of going to segue into what I think is the bigger picture in all of this. So he's 18 years old, lived with his grandmother. Reportedly, his mother struggled with drug addiction. Father, not a part of his life. He was described by those who knew him as a loner, as antisocial. A friend described the time when he showed up to play basketball in his neighborhood and he had cuts all over his face. And apparently that's something that he did. He decided to cut his own face over and over again. And he said it was just fun. The New York Post. reported that he has documented cruelty to animals. He posted about it on social media. I won't even

give the details of that. Really breaks my heart. He reportedly shot at people with a BB gun, again, just for what he considered fun. He threatened girls with rape. He routinely threatened violence towards people. He had had Instagram direct messages about his guns, cryptic messages, about wanting to kill people. He said he was bullied because of his clothes and because he's poor. I don't, we don't know. we don't know necessarily if that's true. There's, of course, that's not an excuse. There's a lot of people who are bullied. I would say all of us at one point were probably bullied or probably excluded or probably

talked badly about, had a hard time socially. I don't know if there's anyone who just skates through kindergarten through 12th grade without having like any sort of hard time with, you know, making friends or feeling different. But he says he was bullied because of his clothes. However, or because he was poor. However, there's a picture of him going around where he's taking a selfie and he's holding an iPhone 13. I'm just not sure you can consider yourself poor in the true sense of the word. Like, he might be not as rich as some of your friends, but can you consider yourself poor

with a brand new iPhone 13? Some people also pointed out that the AR-15 that he used was a Daniel defense rifle, which is apparently almost $2,000, and I think he had two of them. So there's a lot of things in all of this that make you go, hmm, not that ultimately, I guess that matters whether he was poor or not, but I do think that there is a question, like, where did he get? And, you know, get all of the money to buy these things, especially if he truly didn't have very much money. Like, how did that happen? How did that work? How did he get the money to buy those two rifles? I think that's something that people should probably explore. Now, this is a very typical profile of school shooters, young males, mental health problems, loner, documented threats of violence,

cruelty towards people and animals, very many red flags, another huge one, which we're going to talk about more in a little bit. Fatherless, unstable homes. life, just not a lot of discipline, boundaries. And as I said, we'll get back to that in just a second. That's part of the big picture thing. Now, a lot of people are talking about the police response, I think understandably so. Now, before I get into it, I will say that there is some disagreement. There's some back and forth between conservatives. There's a lot of conservatives who are seeing the reporting around what the police did and saying, what the heck, this was total, total failure, you're total cowardice or total incompetence.

And then you have people like Brandon Tatum, who I really like, really appreciate his analysis on a ton of things. And he is talking to some officers who are on the scene who say that the media is not reporting it well and that we need to look at the other side of this, that they were doing what they needed to do. And I would say that, you know, they would be accusing the conservatives who are talking about the failures of the police department of like, of spreading. misinformation. But let me tell you at least what we know. And this to me is a very disturbing

aspect of this. You guys know I am so thankful for the police. I think that the police have perhaps the hardest job in America because not only are you putting your lives on the line every day, something that the vast, vast majority of us wouldn't have the courage to sign up for. But you also are dealing with negative PR, negative press every day. adversarial politicians who want to take your funding away, but still expect you to be a perfect police officer who never makes any mistakes. I think law enforcement wives have it really tough. And so I thought the whole defunding the police movement was wicked and has caused a rise in crime and murders. And it's just a total misunderstanding of human nature. Like you need law enforcement. And the

vast majority of officers are the bravest among us and they are some of the most respectful and compassionate people that we have. So I'm very thankful for that. But here's why being a police officer and having bad police officers is not the same. It's just like, oh, well, there's any occupation, in any occupation you have bad apples, you have bad accountants, you have bad whatever. Well, it's not the same thing as just like having a bad apple teacher because with police officers, you hold people's lives in your hands. So when there are bad police officers who are either cowardly or they're corrupt, then you're not just talking about, oh, you know, someone didn't get a correct, like,

tax return, whatever it is. You're talking about someone dying unjustly, unjustifiably, because of a police officer's mistake. So police officers are held to a higher standard for a reason, because, they hold people's lives in their hands. So I do think that there's like some nuance in how we talk about that. But that said, you guys know how much I respect and I'm thankful for the police. In this case, from my perspective, what I've read, it does not seem like the police did their job well. I know there are other perspectives on that, but it's really hard for me to see them because from what

I'm about to tell you, it looks like they really dropped the ball and that lives were lost because of that. So parents and most of the media are saying they didn't, the local police, the Yuvalde ISD police force did not do their jobs. They didn't run into the fire as they were supposed to. And because of that, children died. And these two teachers died. So it used to be protocol, apparently, for if there was a mass shooter, a school shooter, to kind of barricade the shooter and then the police would create a perimeter until backup came that used to be the protocol. That's no longer the protocol. And the Evalde Police, according to the New York Times, knew the new protocol.

And there was a reporter from the New York Times that posted the school shooter protocol that the Evalde school district knew about and had practiced multiple times that says, if there is a school shooter, they have to be apprehended by a police officer. The police officer goes in and tries to kill them. If that police officer is shot, injured, he falls back. The next police officer goes. Even if it's just one police officer, their job is to try to kill the shooter. And the training documents actually say, if you are not willing to sacrifice your life for

innocent people, then you are in the wrong line of work. But they did not follow that protocol. They did it the old way. They kind of barricaded or tried to ensure that the shooter stayed in one place to adjoining classrooms and then they made a perimeter around the school. And the police chief, Peter Arundondo, said in a press conference that they made the wrong call. So this is according to Newsweek. At least three police officers initially followed the shooter into the building within minutes, but failed to engage him in the next half hour as many as 19 police officers piled into a school

hallway, but were told by Aredondo, the police chief, to stand down, believing that the shooter had barricaded himself inside a classroom and that the children were no longer under an active threat. That part is very confusing. How would you think that the children were not under an active threat? That decision, however, left Ramos free to carry out his attack within one fourth grade classroom. Stephen McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said during a contentious news conference on Friday, another 47 minutes passed before a Border Patrol tactical team breached the classroom door and shot and killed Ramos. It was a wrong decision, period. There was no excuse for that. McRaw said there were plenty of officers to do what needed to be done, with one

exception is that the incident commander inside believed he needed more equipment and more officers to do a tactical breach at the time. 19 officers in the hallway, one officer for every child. And they didn't go in. Students who survived the attack and parents who are kept outside the school have also reported feeling angry and betrayed by the police response. Police received multiple 911 calls from students who were inside the school urging them to please send police now and describing the carnage before them. In one instance, a fourth grade student and police were even responsible for getting one of his classmates shot after asking children to call out if they need help. So he said that the police who were outside of the room, I guess yelled inside the classroom

and said, call out if you need help. I don't really understand the logistics of that. and then one of the children did and the shooter heard her shot her killed her when the cops came the cops said yell if you need help and one of the persons in my class said help the student told local news outlets the guy overheard as he came in and shot her parents who arrived at the school while the shooting was taking place also described scenes in which officers were standing around viral videos have since emerged showing police holding back family members while they begged and pleaded for them to do more their responses since sparked national outrage people labeling officers as cowards for failing to protect vulnerable children and teachers.

The New York Times reported this. When specially equipped federal immigration agents, hey, by the way, thank God for border control or border patrol, the people that some politicians in this country demonize as evil, as if they don't already have enough to do at the border without any support from the federal government whatsoever, as if their jobs aren't hard enough. like here they are doing the jobs that I'm not even sure they were really supposed to be doing in the first place. I'm pretty sure the other officers were supposed to be doing them. Thank the Lord for these brave, brave officers or brave immigration agents.

They arrived at the elementary school in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday. The local police at the scene would not allow them to go after the gunman who had opened fire on students inside the school. According to two officials briefed on the situation, the agents from Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, There are politicians who want to defund ICE, so just remember that, arrived at some point between 12 and 12 10 p.m. According to the officials, far earlier than previously known. But they did not breach the adjoining classrooms of the school where the gunman had locked himself in until a little after 1 p.m. Members of the federal tactical team killed the gunmen. The official said that members of the Uvalde Police Department kept the federal agents from going in sooner.

Eventually, the specialized border patrol team went into the building. So reportedly they were frustrated by the Avalde Police Department saying, nope, you're not going to go in and they just did anyway. Texas law enforcement officials have said that the gunman was locked in a pair of adjoining classrooms and had already shot a number of students there in the first few minutes. With him pinned down there, they said local police initially focused on evacuating students and teachers from elsewhere in the school. Law enforcement officers had initially tried to enter the classroom but fell back after the gunman

fired on them, injuring two officers state law enforcement officials said there was one woman who she drove, she heard about this because this is a woman. posted about on Facebook that this was happening. She heard this was happening. She drove 40 minutes to the school. She tried to run in to get her children. The police officers allegedly handcuffed her so that she couldn't go in. They finally unhandcuffed her. She sprinted into the school. She jumped a wiring fence, grabbed her children, who I guess were in another classroom, so they hadn't been evacuated, and ran out and left. Yeah, that's why, by the way, children don't belong to the community, as Kamala Harris recently said, because it's parents who are willing

to run into the fire. It's parents who care the most about our children who are willing to die unarmed for our children because we love them that much. That's why children don't belong equally to everyone. They belong to their parents because parents have the best interest of their children at heart and are willing to sacrifice anything for them. So good job for that courageous mom. How just can you imagine? I mean, I'm just trying to put myself in that situation. You imagine you think that your child might be being murdered inside and you have police officers, tasing parents. Apparently that happened, holding them back, telling them that they can't rescue their kids and they're also not going in and rescue their kids. Nope. No. That's all I'll say. I'll leave that there. No.

So there is a whole timeline and I guess I don't know if I need to get into all of that. I've already kind of read that there was a long time that elapsed before kids were in there and rescued. I'm glad that he wasn't able to get out of the classroom and kill more kids. But man, these poor kids in these classrooms were just like fish in a barrel. And just from my amateur perspective, like he should have been apprehended earlier. I'm not saying that the officers weren't right to be scared or that the police chief. I'm sure he thought that he was doing the right thing. Of course, I would be incredibly fearful. I'm not a police officer. Most of us are not police officers. And so I understand the, you know, the fear. I would certainly have that fear too, probably in their position. But that is

the job. That is, that is the job. So, you know, if there are more details that come out, that enlighten us about kind of how the decision was made and what went on, I'll be happy to correct the record. I'll be happy to, you know, I don't know, correct. what I said, but right now for the information that we have, it looks like a really, really bad call. And I don't know if the motivation was cowardice or just ignorance. I'm not sure. Whatever it was, it was the wrong move. It was a bad call.

It was a deadly, deadly mistake. And now the families of these children will never be the same. All right. So let's talk about some of the other factors and failures that played into this. We already talked about the police response, and we noted before that he had some documented mental health issues. That should have been a red flag. Those should have been documented, recorded.

He should have received help before he was able to go buy a gun. He did buy the guns legally. He passed a background check. In Texas, you just have to be 18 in order to purchase guns. You do have background checks on. gun purchases made at gun stores. And so he passed the background check. He bought these guns legally.

A lot of the things that he had done and he had said probably should have prevented him from being able to purchase these guns. And I'm not just saying, oh, you know, someone says something wacky and therefore their Second Amendment right is taken away. I'm talking about threatening violence. he had threatened violence towards people. That to me, it seems like there should have been a recorded history of that and that someone at some point, school counselor, family should have stepped in and said, you know what,

this person's not okay. They need help. We don't have a very good system in the United States to help people who are a threat to themselves and a threat to other people. And part of that is understandable because you don't want to. swing too far in the direction of institutionalizing everyone who is different or who says something that is offensive. I mean, we do have a First Amendment in this country. You are allowed to say things that people find offensive. And so you don't want to go too far in that direction.

And obviously, you know, I saw some conservatives saying, oh, we need to bring back mental, you know, mental institutions. All right. I understand. But think about the people, the bureaucrats, running those institutions and like what they would qualify as mental health problems, that would become political and ideological really quickly. I'm not sure how helpful that would be. However, I agree that there needs to be some kind of system in place to try to help people who suffer from these very serious mental health issues and to protect society from them. I don't know the exact answer, but I do know based on his recorded history of violence

and cruelty towards animals. And a lot of things that he said and did. And the violence, the shooting people with a BB guns, like that should have been a red flag. That should have prevented him from being able to buy these guns. Now, he also broke lots of Texas gun laws. You have to be 21 to carry a gun in Texas. He was not 21.

The school is a gun free zone. And obviously he violated that because that's what criminals and murderers do. They don't care about gun free zones. Gun free zones are maybe one of the most illogical things in existence. So he broke those laws. He chose a soft target, the school being a gun free zone, just like the guy in Buffalo, who allegedly said that he chose that area because he knew that people wouldn't be armed. That's what this school shooter did.

Schools are soft targets because they are gun free zones. The only people who care about gun free zones are the people who are not going to use a gun to murder people in the first place. the door apparently was dropped, was propped open by a teacher. We don't know why school resource officer who was typically present apparently was not there. And then, of course, we mentioned what I think is a failed police response. Now, we know very typically people are making this all about the NRA and the gun. Look, the NRA, as other commentators have noted, is not the powerful force that it used to be.

The gun lobby in the United States are really just constituents. They're really just people who own guns. The NRA filed for bankruptcy, I think it was last year or the year before. So they don't have the political sway that they once did. Yes, of course, you have Second Amendment supporters. And we have a Second Amendment, okay? So people have a constitutional right to own a gun in the United States. The guns are not going away.

We have more guns in the United States than we have people. And you can lament that and you can talk about the problems with that if you want to. But that's the fact. if you are suggesting that the answer to this problem is that we confiscate people's guns or we ban the sale of guns, then I'm sure that you are sincere. I'm sure that you're sincere. I won't question your motives, but you are not serious. You are not adding any kind of serious contribution to the conversation because that's not feasible. So when people talk about very feasible solutions, like securing a school, making sure there's only one point of entry, many points

of exit, but only one point of entry. So you don't, you can't come in. There are doors that go out, but you can't actually open them from the outside. One point of entry. Armed guards at that point of entry, ensuring that the schools are secure with not just cameras and possible metal detectors if you need that, but also armed guards. So they are not soft targets. I don't think that we need them to be gun-free zones. Again, completely illogical. When you suggest those things, the security of school, you're told that you don't care enough, that you're not looking at the real problem. And then you're mocked. and you're scoffed at and you're condemned and you're told all the reasons why that doesn't work,

that kids are going to feel like they're in a jail. Look, we protect concerts, we protect athletic events, we protect Congress, we protect state legislatures, we protect Hollywood award shows and celebrities with armed guards. And none of those people feel like they're in jail. So if all of those people and all of those entities and all of those places are worth protecting with people with guns, why aren't schools and students and teachers worth protecting with people with guns? What's better? What's more traumatizing? Feeling like, you know, being scared because there are armed guards at your school protecting you or being a

soft target for a school shooting because there's not enough security. But people are mocked and condemned and scoffed out for that because the only acceptable, according to the mainstream media, the only acceptable solution is calling for the confiscation of guns and the ban of gun sales. And that's Unserious. That's how you know that the conversation around this really is more performative for some people than anything else because the person who calls for something that is totally unreasonable, the confiscation and the ban of guns, is given more, it's called compassionate more than the person who actually argues for very feasible, very possible solutions, which is securing the school. Now, I'm not saying that there are no conversations to be had. about gun legislation. Like this is not my, you guys know, I don't talk about this very much. I believe that the Second Amendment is incredibly important to protecting American freedom. And I'm thankful for the Second Amendment.

I'm thankful for the right to self-defense. And ultimately, it's not just a right to self-defense. It is a safeguard against tyranny. Now, I know what people say. They say, well, the government has nukes. The government has tanks. You're not going to be able to take on the governments. you know, with your gun. Well, that's not really what it's about. When the populace is armed,

as much as America is, if a government is really going to overtake you, if the government would really try to inflict some kind of totalitarian control on you, they are going to be far less likely to do that when the populace is well armed. That's just a fact because they have to be really sure they want to see the bloodiest day in the country's history. They would have to be really sure that they want to literally annihilate and murder millions of Americans in order to inflict that kind of rule. So the point of having a well-armed populace is not necessarily that you can defeat a government entity that has nukes. It is to make the calculation, the risk calculation of the government if they were assessing that kind of thing really difficult, really difficult for

them to justify that kind of mass bloodshed. So that's really what the second of is for. It is supposed to be a safeguard against tyranny. Yes, it's for self-defense. Yes, it can be for hunting as well. That is, you know, why people exercise the Second Amendment mostly, but it is supposed to be a safeguard against tyranny. And so you guys know that I am pro-second amendment for all of those reasons. I don't, but we also know that there are restrictions on gun-blying and that there are limitations. and I am open to hearing any policy that would have truly prevented the school shooting, any feasible policy that would have prevented the school shooting, that would make it impossible or improbable for bad guys to have guns without inhibiting

the rights of good guys with guns. I am for that. I think that every conservative, every gun owner is for that. How can you keep guns out of the hands? of bad guys without inhibiting the right of self-defense and gun ownership of the good guys. I've seen some people. I saw one person, not some people, I'm sure there are other people, but one guy, he posted a video destroying his AR-15. And, you know, he can do that. That's his, that's his right to do that. And maybe it's just symbolic, but if it were really just symbolic,

why would you need to post a video about it? And I'm just, I'm through, I am actually confused about what that accomplishes. What does that accomplish? If like the AR-15 or the gun, when it is not in the hands of someone who is going to commit murder or do wrong, is not actually dangerous. Taking away guns from people, law-abiding, responsible people doesn't make anyone safer. Doesn't make anyone safer. There was this Sacramento gun confiscation program that offered a $50 gift card for people to turn in their guns, which is just awful. A gun is way more than $50. You're explaining poor people.

Only poor people are going to participate in that program because they're desperate for half to take a gas in California. So they're going to give up their ability to defend themselves so they can get gas. Guess who didn't turn over their guns? Criminals. People who are committing murder. They're not turning over their guns. And so all of this is kind of illogical.

It's illogical. You would be punishing. law-abiding people by confiscating guns, not the people who are actually dangerous when they have guns. But then, like I said, I'm not against feasible restrictions. I do want to talk about HR-8, though, that people are saying, oh, we need to pass HR-8. This would help things. So HR-8 requires universal background check. So right now in many states, you don't actually have to have a background.

ground check to buy a firearm in like a private sale. So like from a friend or from someone who doesn't actually work at a gun shop. You don't have to have a background check. You only have to have a background check if you actually buy it from a store in a lot of states. And so HR 8 would require a background check in all sales of guns. All right. I don't know entirely what's in the bill and why exactly Republicans are against it. I'm sure that they could give their reasons. But that that has no correlation whatsoever. It has no correlation whatsoever to the mass shooting in Evalde because he bought it from a gun store and he passed the background check. Now, if you want to talk about raising the age of being able to buy guns, if you want to talk about different kinds of

limitations, you can talk about that, but at least make some kind of policy proposal that has some kind of correlation to what actually happened in Evalde. People who are just saying, just do something, just do something that's not actually compassionate. Let's look at feasible solutions. And let us not put off the table like the cultural issues, the background issues, the underlying issues, the moral issues that are really there, the security issues that are really there, the failure of police that is there. If your only solution is to take away people's guns or to confiscate AR-15s, then again, that's not a serious suggestion because it's not going to happen. A-R-15s are the most popular rifle in the United States. There are millions that are in

circulation, and they're really not any functionally different than most hunting rifles. They are a semi-automatic rifle. The vast majority of guns are semi-automatic, including handguns. They're different than handguns. Air 15s, of course, are different than handguns. The reason that they're used is not necessarily because they are more lethal than any other long gun. They are more lethal than some other kinds of long guns.

but they are mostly used, gun experts say, because of the copycat effect and also because of how they look. So they're a semi-automatic rifle. When Kim Kardashian says that we need to get rid of semi-automatic guns, she has no idea what she's talking about. Almost all guns, again, are semi-automatic, including handguns. When Biden says that we're getting rid of like nine millimeters, I mean, again, you're talking about most handguns that are used for self-defense.

And so, again, we have to bring feasible. solutions to the table. We have to have some kind of like knowledge of guns. There is no AR doesn't stand for assault rifle. It stands for Armulite. There is no one definition of assault weapon. That's why it's really difficult to actually ban assault weapons because no one has a specific definition of it. A lot of the policy proposals being put forth are either just like not going to happen because we have so many guns in the United States or they have no correlation to to the mass shootings. So I am not against again, again, having conversations. about legislative solutions in addition to some of the other moral issues that we're talking

about here. But, but like, again, they have to have some kind of grounding in reality, just clamoring to do something, just yelling at the sky that you want something to be done. That's not actually compassion and it's certainly not wisdom. The fact is, is that America has a high mass shooting rate, a high murder rate for the developed world, a high gun crime rate. not because of the number of guns. Because gun ownership over the past 50 years, according to some data, it's gone down in 2016.

According to the Washington Post, it was the lowest percentage of gun ownership that we have had in 50 years. I think it dropped to 36%. It typically hovers around 44%. Other outlets say that it stayed basically the same since the 1970s, now with population growth, that might mean that there are more guns. But the percentage of gun ownership really has not

increased over the past 50 years. And yet, depending on the definition of mass shootings, the mass shootings have increased. And so it doesn't really make logical sense to say that it's the prevalence of guns. Also, if you look at the data on the highest homicide rates in the United States, there is not a correlation to the highest, the states with the highest number of guns, the highest gun ownership. The most gun ownership in the country, Montana, Wyoming, Alaska, Idaho, West Virginia, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, South Dakota, and North Dakota. The highest murder rates, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Missouri, Arkansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland, Illinois, New Mexico. The lowest murder rates include Idaho, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Utah, Iowa.

These states have some of the laxist gun laws in the country. And so it's just not incredibly clear that lax gun laws cause more homicide. or more gun crimes. Actually, there's no data that's really showing that. And there is not really strong data that's showing that there is a relationship between high gun ownership and a state and high gun violence. There's just not a whole lot of strong data when it comes to that. What there is strong data for, and we'll kind of close out on this.

There's more that I have to say, but I don't. We'll have to continue this tomorrow. What there is strong data for is that fatherlessness is causing an epidemic of violence, especially among young men. My friend Samuel Say wrote this incredible article on his blog, and he talked about some statistics. He said 63% of teenagers who commit suicide are fatherless. 72% of adolescent murders are fatherless. 75% of adolescents and rehab centers for drug use are fatherless. 60% of rapists are fatherless. 85% of teenagers in prison are fatherless. 75% of the most cited school shooters in America are fatherless, just like the teenager who

walked into Rob Elementary School to murder 21 people. A 2012 study on juvenile male inmates found that fatherless boys are 279 percent more likely to carry guns for criminal behavior. And then he goes on to say that he was in 20 fights. Samuel Say was in 20 fights before he was 18 years old. He also grew up without a dad. That is part of the profile of most of the young men who commit violence. That and not only did they not have a strong male figure in their life, there is also an epidemic of the demonizing of healthy masculinity. Look, there is nothing more dangerous in the world than a man, a young man who is idle, who has nothing to live for, nothing to do, no one to fight for. Men were created for good, honorable fights to defend and to

provide for their family and community. When we are taking that away, when we are inundating younger generations with instant gratification, when we are exchanging reality for virtual reality. When we are exacerbating the mental health issues that already exist by pulling them into virtual learning, by isolating them, by addicting them to social media and technology, we are making matters worse. On top of all of that, we are dealing with not just a crisis of fatherlessness and meaninglessness, but also godlessness. And I know other people will say, well, other countries aren't Christian and they don't deal with the same problems that we have, so it must be the guns. Look, America's decline in religious affiliation,

and community-centered activities, we've experienced a very quick precipitous decline. It hasn't been something that has slowly happened over time. It has happened very quickly over the past 20 to 50 years, and we haven't been able to catch up to, keep up with the change of morality and the values and the loss of identity and purpose that we have experienced as a country. On top of all of that, as I said at the beginning, we're very political. We're very vitriolic. In somewhere like the UK and a lot of countries in Europe, they just don't have the same kind of division and rhetoric and politicization that we have as a country.

And really, America has always been like that. So why does this happen in America? I think some of those characteristics are a part of it. I'm not going to say that the prevalence of guns has absolutely nothing to do with it. Obviously, that's a commonality in mass shootings. So I'm not going to say, oh, that has absolutely nothing. Access to guns has nothing to do with it. I just think that we've always had access to guns.

But now we are dealing with a crisis of immorality in meaninglessness and purposelessness, in godlessness that has happened so fast and fatherlessness. That has happened so fast. And our young men are bearing the brunt of it. They're bearing the brunt of it. They need mentors. They need help. They need hope.

They need purpose. They need good fights to fight. When we demonize the family, as so many groups have, including Black Lives Matter, who said they want to disrupt the nuclear family and want nothing to do with fathers. When we disrupt the family, no fault divorce, separating sex from marriage, separating procreation from sex. Like, we take away the foundation of any healthy values centered society. And unfortunately, we are going to continue to bear the consequences of that. And not only that, the mental health problems that we have cannot be treated by the psychology industry today because it has been so inundated with an ideology that actually demonizes

masculinity and demonizes the Christian values like being made in the image of God that actually help and heal some of the fractures that we are experienced today. So we have a lot of problems. America has a lot of unique problems that all speak to this. This particular instance had a lot of unique problems and failure. and factors that played into it. And again, I'm not against talking about the gun issue. I'm not.

But we have to bring all solutions to the table and reason together. One thing we know for sure is that the fatherlessness in the Bible are a category of vulnerability. They're a category of oppression. So we as Christians need to ask what we are doing to run into the fight for them to mentor young men to try to create meaning and cultivate purpose for the men in our communities. how are we bridging that divide and building friendships and creating mentorship and discipleship for this group that is the common demographic in all of these situations? And then also how are we infusing hope and infusing kindness, even while speaking the

truth, as passionately as we can, into every sphere that we occupy? And I think that, you know, that's for all of us. That's for all of us something to kind of take home and apply for ourselves. And again, don't think that love and that prayer doesn't have great power because it absolutely does even if there are political aspects to consider in all of this. All right. I know that was kind of a rushed ending, but that's all I had time for today. We'll be back here tomorrow and Thursday with other good stuff and some good interviews

that I know you guys are going to enjoy and hopefully will be an encouragement to you. All right, we will be back here tomorrow. Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Alley, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles,

faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over K. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us.